Viruses / Vaccines

mickeyrat

 so my doctors practice owner said at 6 months immunity levels drop to roughly 60%.  so logic says at 3 months, that would put levels at roughly 75% or so....  and single dose j&j has shown less effective than a 2 dose regimen. iirc their reasoning for single dose when they did was get it out sooner and that 2 dose studies were continuing after the emerg use approval for one.

Meltdown99

There are currently 165 people in intensive care in Ontario, in a province of 14.5 million.  Lol.  How many unvaxxed?

RunIntoTheRain

UK has over 88K positive cases today. 

That’s like the USA having 440K. 

lastexitlondon

I'd  say thats an understatement.  Its  serious here. Not in way of severity  but  its spreading  so so fast  its uncontainable now  already.  In 1 week its gone from  200 cases of omicron  to every fucker has it . And i mean everyone knows someone  with it. No need for panic but  be prepared for unstoppable  spread.

bbiggs

With it spreading so fast, and seemingly unstoppable, this may be the wave that brings herd immunity.

lastexitlondon

bbiggs said:

With it spreading so fast, and seemingly unstoppable, this may be the wave that brings herd immunity.

I agree totally.  It looks like this  is the  beginning of the end. Lets hope.

lastexitlondon

RunIntoTheRain said:

UK has over 88K positive cases today. 

That’s like the USA having 440K. 

I know 5 of them 

dignin

Buckle up.

COVID: Omicron is unstoppable now

Experts in Germany say we're unprepared for the inevitable: Hundreds of thousands of omicron infections per day. That is how infectious the new variant is.

So, that's that: It won't be a Merry Christmas after all.

It's only a matter of time before we're hit by the full force of omicron infections — a case of, "not if, but when." And that when won't take long. That's what three of Germany's top researchers said during a virtual nationwide press briefing Wednesday (15.12.2021).  

Christoph Neumann-Haefelin , an immunologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, said omicron will likely become the dominant variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by mid-January — superseding the delta variant, which until now has been one of the most infectious strains since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Neumann-Haefelin predicts that infection rates will shoot up dramatically — possibly to hundreds of thousands per day. 

Coronavirus

That dark prognosis is based on international data that German researchers have been studying. Take for instance the United Kingdom, where omicron infection rates are doubling every two to three days.

Dirk Brockmann , a physicist at Humboldt University of Berlin, says that's a factor of three-to-four-times higher than infection rates with previous variants.

Experts in the UK estimate new omicron infections could shoot up to as many as 400,000-to-700,000 cases per day.

They think it's possible that 20-34 million people could become infected with omicron between now (December 2021) and April 2022 — that's about half of the UK population — despite reinforced rules on social distancing, medical masks, school closures and more.

"I'd be surprised if we didn't see a similar situation here in Germany," said Brockmann.

Governments must act now

Brockmann says politicians have to act immediately,  setting up emergency plans for a range of scenarios and then putting them into action.

"We have to slow the spread of the virus to limit the damage," according to Brockmann. But, he admits, it will be impossible to stop it outright.   

Germany's experts say communities will have to reduce social contacts and people's movements drastically, similar to what they did in the very first lockdowns.

"But we'll have to do a whole lot more given the speed with which this variant is spreading," Brockmann said.   

At risk even if you're boosted

Omicron is not only more infectious than other variants of the coronavirus, it can also evade our human immune responses — what experts call "immune escape."

That means people who are double jabbed and even those who have had booster shots, can still get infected.

A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security, said Sandra Ciesek , director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt.

Ciesek said while it was important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron.

"It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense," she said. "The virus moves faster than that."

Omicron more dangerous than people think

Ciesek went on to say that omicron was likely to be just as dangerous as other variants of the virus — despite some reports suggesting it may only cause mild infections.

Initial data from the UK and Denmark show that hospitalization rates for people infected with omicron are not much different from those infected with the delta variant.

At the start of the omicron wave, reports from South Africa gave hope that the variant was less dangerous than delta, as many people there experienced only mild infections.

But since then, an increasing number of people infected with omicron have had to be hospitalized. The UK was the first country to report a death with omicron.

Ciesek said it was hard to compare the European situation with that in South Africa, where the population is on average younger, and where many people have had a previous coronavirus infection. 

  

Health systems may collapse

Experts also warn that if infection rates continue to rise dramatically, health systems may well collapse.

Take, for example, the UK again: Estimated hospitalizations of between 3-5,000 people would put a strain on the "entire machinery," said Brockmann.

Many hospitals are struggling as it is and they won't be able to accept many more patients, especially as more patients mean higher risk of medical personnel getting infected as well.

Brockmann said we could see a cascade of effects, not all of them predictable. So researchers are calling on politicians to act decisively — "Time is running out," said Brockmann.

Ciesek, too, said she felt that Germany was ill-prepared, adding that she was very concerned about the situation. 

Granted, these are worst-case scenarios but the three experts agreed it won't be enough to just hope omicron shows itself to be less dangerous than other variants.

Neumann-Haefelin said such wishful thinking would be akin to "walking into a catastrophe with open eyes." 

https://m.dw.com/en/covid-omicron-is-unstoppable-now/a-60148548

static111

dignin said:

Buckle up.

COVID: Omicron is unstoppable now

Experts in Germany say we're unprepared for the inevitable: Hundreds of thousands of omicron infections per day. That is how infectious the new variant is.

So, that's that: It won't be a Merry Christmas after all.

It's only a matter of time before we're hit by the full force of omicron infections — a case of, "not if, but when." And that when won't take long. That's what three of Germany's top researchers said during a virtual nationwide press briefing Wednesday (15.12.2021).  

Christoph Neumann-Haefelin , an immunologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, said omicron will likely become the dominant variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by mid-January — superseding the delta variant, which until now has been one of the most infectious strains since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Neumann-Haefelin predicts that infection rates will shoot up dramatically — possibly to hundreds of thousands per day. 

Coronavirus

That dark prognosis is based on international data that German researchers have been studying. Take for instance the United Kingdom, where omicron infection rates are doubling every two to three days.

Dirk Brockmann , a physicist at Humboldt University of Berlin, says that's a factor of three-to-four-times higher than infection rates with previous variants.

Experts in the UK estimate new omicron infections could shoot up to as many as 400,000-to-700,000 cases per day.

They think it's possible that 20-34 million people could become infected with omicron between now (December 2021) and April 2022 — that's about half of the UK population — despite reinforced rules on social distancing, medical masks, school closures and more.

"I'd be surprised if we didn't see a similar situation here in Germany," said Brockmann.

Governments must act now

Brockmann says politicians have to act immediately,  setting up emergency plans for a range of scenarios and then putting them into action.

"We have to slow the spread of the virus to limit the damage," according to Brockmann. But, he admits, it will be impossible to stop it outright.   

Germany's experts say communities will have to reduce social contacts and people's movements drastically, similar to what they did in the very first lockdowns.

"But we'll have to do a whole lot more given the speed with which this variant is spreading," Brockmann said.   

At risk even if you're boosted

Omicron is not only more infectious than other variants of the coronavirus, it can also evade our human immune responses — what experts call "immune escape."

That means people who are double jabbed and even those who have had booster shots, can still get infected.

A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security, said Sandra Ciesek , director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt.

Ciesek said while it was important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron.

"It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense," she said. "The virus moves faster than that."

Omicron more dangerous than people think

Ciesek went on to say that omicron was likely to be just as dangerous as other variants of the virus — despite some reports suggesting it may only cause mild infections.

Initial data from the UK and Denmark show that hospitalization rates for people infected with omicron are not much different from those infected with the delta variant.

At the start of the omicron wave, reports from South Africa gave hope that the variant was less dangerous than delta, as many people there experienced only mild infections.

But since then, an increasing number of people infected with omicron have had to be hospitalized. The UK was the first country to report a death with omicron.

Ciesek said it was hard to compare the European situation with that in South Africa, where the population is on average younger, and where many people have had a previous coronavirus infection. 

  

Health systems may collapse

Experts also warn that if infection rates continue to rise dramatically, health systems may well collapse.

Take, for example, the UK again: Estimated hospitalizations of between 3-5,000 people would put a strain on the "entire machinery," said Brockmann.

Many hospitals are struggling as it is and they won't be able to accept many more patients, especially as more patients mean higher risk of medical personnel getting infected as well.

Brockmann said we could see a cascade of effects, not all of them predictable. So researchers are calling on politicians to act decisively — "Time is running out," said Brockmann.

Ciesek, too, said she felt that Germany was ill-prepared, adding that she was very concerned about the situation. 

Granted, these are worst-case scenarios but the three experts agreed it won't be enough to just hope omicron shows itself to be less dangerous than other variants.

Neumann-Haefelin said such wishful thinking would be akin to "walking into a catastrophe with open eyes." 

https://m.dw.com/en/covid-omicron-is-unstoppable-now/a-60148548

Has this been peer reviewed?

GlowGirl

I dodged a Covid bullet. I was supposed to go to my friend's apartment on Sunday night to order food and watch the Succession finale. I ended up doing several hours of work, and was not that motivated to go out. I asked him if we could postpone getting together, which we did. Monday morning he called me and said that he woke up with a slight fever and body aches. His rapid test came back positive, and he just got his positive PCR results. He is fully vaxxed, but not boosted yet. He is starting to feel better today. His main symptoms were low fever (around 100.5), body aches, sore throat, and fatigue. He said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be in terms of his symptoms - he said it felt like a milder case of the flu - likely because he is vaxxed. I haven't seen him since before Thanksgiving, and am glad I did not go over to his place on Sunday. I already have my booster - but who know what would have happened had I gone over there. I think with Omicron we may all end up getting it at some point. I am going to look at the glass as being half full and hope that this will mainly be mild cases - which could lead to more herd immunity.

elvistheking44

static111 said:

dignin said:

Buckle up.

COVID: Omicron is unstoppable now

Experts in Germany say we're unprepared for the inevitable: Hundreds of thousands of omicron infections per day. That is how infectious the new variant is.

So, that's that: It won't be a Merry Christmas after all.

It's only a matter of time before we're hit by the full force of omicron infections — a case of, "not if, but when." And that when won't take long. That's what three of Germany's top researchers said during a virtual nationwide press briefing Wednesday (15.12.2021).  

Christoph Neumann-Haefelin , an immunologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, said omicron will likely become the dominant variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by mid-January — superseding the delta variant, which until now has been one of the most infectious strains since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Neumann-Haefelin predicts that infection rates will shoot up dramatically — possibly to hundreds of thousands per day. 

Coronavirus

That dark prognosis is based on international data that German researchers have been studying. Take for instance the United Kingdom, where omicron infection rates are doubling every two to three days.

Dirk Brockmann , a physicist at Humboldt University of Berlin, says that's a factor of three-to-four-times higher than infection rates with previous variants.

Experts in the UK estimate new omicron infections could shoot up to as many as 400,000-to-700,000 cases per day.

They think it's possible that 20-34 million people could become infected with omicron between now (December 2021) and April 2022 — that's about half of the UK population — despite reinforced rules on social distancing, medical masks, school closures and more.

"I'd be surprised if we didn't see a similar situation here in Germany," said Brockmann.

Governments must act now

Brockmann says politicians have to act immediately,  setting up emergency plans for a range of scenarios and then putting them into action.

"We have to slow the spread of the virus to limit the damage," according to Brockmann. But, he admits, it will be impossible to stop it outright.   

Germany's experts say communities will have to reduce social contacts and people's movements drastically, similar to what they did in the very first lockdowns.

"But we'll have to do a whole lot more given the speed with which this variant is spreading," Brockmann said.   

At risk even if you're boosted

Omicron is not only more infectious than other variants of the coronavirus, it can also evade our human immune responses — what experts call "immune escape."

That means people who are double jabbed and even those who have had booster shots, can still get infected.

A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security, said Sandra Ciesek , director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt.

Ciesek said while it was important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron.

"It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense," she said. "The virus moves faster than that."

Omicron more dangerous than people think

Ciesek went on to say that omicron was likely to be just as dangerous as other variants of the virus — despite some reports suggesting it may only cause mild infections.

Initial data from the UK and Denmark show that hospitalization rates for people infected with omicron are not much different from those infected with the delta variant.

At the start of the omicron wave, reports from South Africa gave hope that the variant was less dangerous than delta, as many people there experienced only mild infections.

But since then, an increasing number of people infected with omicron have had to be hospitalized. The UK was the first country to report a death with omicron.

Ciesek said it was hard to compare the European situation with that in South Africa, where the population is on average younger, and where many people have had a previous coronavirus infection. 

  

Health systems may collapse

Experts also warn that if infection rates continue to rise dramatically, health systems may well collapse.

Take, for example, the UK again: Estimated hospitalizations of between 3-5,000 people would put a strain on the "entire machinery," said Brockmann.

Many hospitals are struggling as it is and they won't be able to accept many more patients, especially as more patients mean higher risk of medical personnel getting infected as well.

Brockmann said we could see a cascade of effects, not all of them predictable. So researchers are calling on politicians to act decisively — "Time is running out," said Brockmann.

Ciesek, too, said she felt that Germany was ill-prepared, adding that she was very concerned about the situation. 

Granted, these are worst-case scenarios but the three experts agreed it won't be enough to just hope omicron shows itself to be less dangerous than other variants.

Neumann-Haefelin said such wishful thinking would be akin to "walking into a catastrophe with open eyes." 

https://m.dw.com/en/covid-omicron-is-unstoppable-now/a-60148548

Has this been peer reviewed?

It doesn’t matter to the masses. The fear is out there, no going back.

Meltdown99

I did what our our premier big Doug said to do…book my booster.  No spots open anywhere.  Lol.  

mickeyrat

says your fellow ontarians(?)  take it seriously.......

mickeyrat

meanwhile in the land of guns and freedumb, I plan a walk in on dec 23rd at the same location as my 2 dose sticks......

with choice between  the 3 us approved vaxxes

Meltdown99

Many peoples water systems fluoridate water.  Maybe they need to vaccinate our water supply.

mace1229

mickeyrat said:

 so my doctors practice owner said at 6 months immunity levels drop to roughly 60%.  so logic says at 3 months, that would put levels at roughly 75% or so....  and single dose j&j has shown less effective than a 2 dose regimen. iirc their reasoning for single dose when they did was get it out sooner and that 2 dose studies were continuing after the emerg use approval for one.

I wouldn’t think so. I don’t think the effectiveness drops off in a linear scale. I would guess stays at max effectiveness for a few months then tapers faster the longer put you are.

HughFreakingDillon

we've heard the doom and gloom before. the imminent collapse of health care, etc etc. while of course that's certainly a possibility, it's by no means certain. just be vigilant, get your boosters, and don't be an idiot. 

dignin

elvistheking44 said:

static111 said:

dignin said:

Buckle up.

COVID: Omicron is unstoppable now

Experts in Germany say we're unprepared for the inevitable: Hundreds of thousands of omicron infections per day. That is how infectious the new variant is.

So, that's that: It won't be a Merry Christmas after all.

It's only a matter of time before we're hit by the full force of omicron infections — a case of, "not if, but when." And that when won't take long. That's what three of Germany's top researchers said during a virtual nationwide press briefing Wednesday (15.12.2021).  

Christoph Neumann-Haefelin , an immunologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, said omicron will likely become the dominant variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by mid-January — superseding the delta variant, which until now has been one of the most infectious strains since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Neumann-Haefelin predicts that infection rates will shoot up dramatically — possibly to hundreds of thousands per day. 

Coronavirus

That dark prognosis is based on international data that German researchers have been studying. Take for instance the United Kingdom, where omicron infection rates are doubling every two to three days.

Dirk Brockmann , a physicist at Humboldt University of Berlin, says that's a factor of three-to-four-times higher than infection rates with previous variants.

Experts in the UK estimate new omicron infections could shoot up to as many as 400,000-to-700,000 cases per day.

They think it's possible that 20-34 million people could become infected with omicron between now (December 2021) and April 2022 — that's about half of the UK population — despite reinforced rules on social distancing, medical masks, school closures and more.

"I'd be surprised if we didn't see a similar situation here in Germany," said Brockmann.

Governments must act now

Brockmann says politicians have to act immediately,  setting up emergency plans for a range of scenarios and then putting them into action.

"We have to slow the spread of the virus to limit the damage," according to Brockmann. But, he admits, it will be impossible to stop it outright.   

Germany's experts say communities will have to reduce social contacts and people's movements drastically, similar to what they did in the very first lockdowns.

"But we'll have to do a whole lot more given the speed with which this variant is spreading," Brockmann said.   

At risk even if you're boosted

Omicron is not only more infectious than other variants of the coronavirus, it can also evade our human immune responses — what experts call "immune escape."

That means people who are double jabbed and even those who have had booster shots, can still get infected.

A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security, said Sandra Ciesek , director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt.

Ciesek said while it was important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron.

"It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense," she said. "The virus moves faster than that."

Omicron more dangerous than people think

Ciesek went on to say that omicron was likely to be just as dangerous as other variants of the virus — despite some reports suggesting it may only cause mild infections.

Initial data from the UK and Denmark show that hospitalization rates for people infected with omicron are not much different from those infected with the delta variant.

At the start of the omicron wave, reports from South Africa gave hope that the variant was less dangerous than delta, as many people there experienced only mild infections.

But since then, an increasing number of people infected with omicron have had to be hospitalized. The UK was the first country to report a death with omicron.

Ciesek said it was hard to compare the European situation with that in South Africa, where the population is on average younger, and where many people have had a previous coronavirus infection. 

  

Health systems may collapse

Experts also warn that if infection rates continue to rise dramatically, health systems may well collapse.

Take, for example, the UK again: Estimated hospitalizations of between 3-5,000 people would put a strain on the "entire machinery," said Brockmann.

Many hospitals are struggling as it is and they won't be able to accept many more patients, especially as more patients mean higher risk of medical personnel getting infected as well.

Brockmann said we could see a cascade of effects, not all of them predictable. So researchers are calling on politicians to act decisively — "Time is running out," said Brockmann.

Ciesek, too, said she felt that Germany was ill-prepared, adding that she was very concerned about the situation. 

Granted, these are worst-case scenarios but the three experts agreed it won't be enough to just hope omicron shows itself to be less dangerous than other variants.

Neumann-Haefelin said such wishful thinking would be akin to "walking into a catastrophe with open eyes." 

https://m.dw.com/en/covid-omicron-is-unstoppable-now/a-60148548

Has this been peer reviewed?

It doesn’t matter to the masses. The fear is out there, no going back.

Haha, sure. Everything will be fine, nothing to worry about.

You were probably on the "just a flu" bus at the beginning of this pandemic.

I will continue to listen to the experts. No fear here, just prepared.

dignin

static111 said:

dignin said:

Buckle up.

COVID: Omicron is unstoppable now

Experts in Germany say we're unprepared for the inevitable: Hundreds of thousands of omicron infections per day. That is how infectious the new variant is.

So, that's that: It won't be a Merry Christmas after all.

It's only a matter of time before we're hit by the full force of omicron infections — a case of, "not if, but when." And that when won't take long. That's what three of Germany's top researchers said during a virtual nationwide press briefing Wednesday (15.12.2021).  

Christoph Neumann-Haefelin , an immunologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, said omicron will likely become the dominant variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, by mid-January — superseding the delta variant, which until now has been one of the most infectious strains since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Neumann-Haefelin predicts that infection rates will shoot up dramatically — possibly to hundreds of thousands per day. 

Coronavirus

That dark prognosis is based on international data that German researchers have been studying. Take for instance the United Kingdom, where omicron infection rates are doubling every two to three days.

Dirk Brockmann , a physicist at Humboldt University of Berlin, says that's a factor of three-to-four-times higher than infection rates with previous variants.

Experts in the UK estimate new omicron infections could shoot up to as many as 400,000-to-700,000 cases per day.

They think it's possible that 20-34 million people could become infected with omicron between now (December 2021) and April 2022 — that's about half of the UK population — despite reinforced rules on social distancing, medical masks, school closures and more.

"I'd be surprised if we didn't see a similar situation here in Germany," said Brockmann.

Governments must act now

Brockmann says politicians have to act immediately,  setting up emergency plans for a range of scenarios and then putting them into action.

"We have to slow the spread of the virus to limit the damage," according to Brockmann. But, he admits, it will be impossible to stop it outright.   

Germany's experts say communities will have to reduce social contacts and people's movements drastically, similar to what they did in the very first lockdowns.

"But we'll have to do a whole lot more given the speed with which this variant is spreading," Brockmann said.   

At risk even if you're boosted

Omicron is not only more infectious than other variants of the coronavirus, it can also evade our human immune responses — what experts call "immune escape."

That means people who are double jabbed and even those who have had booster shots, can still get infected.

A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security, said Sandra Ciesek , director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt.

Ciesek said while it was important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron.

"It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense," she said. "The virus moves faster than that."

Omicron more dangerous than people think

Ciesek went on to say that omicron was likely to be just as dangerous as other variants of the virus — despite some reports suggesting it may only cause mild infections.

Initial data from the UK and Denmark show that hospitalization rates for people infected with omicron are not much different from those infected with the delta variant.

At the start of the omicron wave, reports from South Africa gave hope that the variant was less dangerous than delta, as many people there experienced only mild infections.

But since then, an increasing number of people infected with omicron have had to be hospitalized. The UK was the first country to report a death with omicron.

Ciesek said it was hard to compare the European situation with that in South Africa, where the population is on average younger, and where many people have had a previous coronavirus infection. 

  

Health systems may collapse

Experts also warn that if infection rates continue to rise dramatically, health systems may well collapse.

Take, for example, the UK again: Estimated hospitalizations of between 3-5,000 people would put a strain on the "entire machinery," said Brockmann.

Many hospitals are struggling as it is and they won't be able to accept many more patients, especially as more patients mean higher risk of medical personnel getting infected as well.

Brockmann said we could see a cascade of effects, not all of them predictable. So researchers are calling on politicians to act decisively — "Time is running out," said Brockmann.

Ciesek, too, said she felt that Germany was ill-prepared, adding that she was very concerned about the situation. 

Granted, these are worst-case scenarios but the three experts agreed it won't be enough to just hope omicron shows itself to be less dangerous than other variants.

Neumann-Haefelin said such wishful thinking would be akin to "walking into a catastrophe with open eyes." 

https://m.dw.com/en/covid-omicron-is-unstoppable-now/a-60148548

Has this been peer reviewed?

Peer review what exactly?

mcgruff10

booster yesterday.  Around 11am side effects started creeping in.  Slight headache, achy and really tired.  Two Tylenol seemed to do the trick.